#fma ep 18

[docholligay]

LIEUTENANT ROSS FOR THE ONLY ONE NOT PLAYING THE ANIME AGE GAME.

I am well known, and accept happily the crown, for hating the anime age game. I HATE the teen protags. And it's not so much them being teenagers--I don't hate something like Revue Starlight, where the protags are teens but they act like teenagers and are treated like teenagers continually--but stuff like this, Sailor Moon, etc, where I am continually treated to Schrodinger's Teenager, I have a lot of trouble with. Mostly because they are strong and bold and can lead and all that horseshit until i criticize them for doing something stupid, and then all of sudden their age is extremely relevant and how can I be so meeeeaaannnnnn to a chiiiiiiillllllld. Ignoring completely that these people are never written as young as their given age.

ANYWAY, at the very least, Ross is like, "Hi. has it struck anyone that this is fucked up? Just me?" Which I think is a very reasonable position to hold! At least it is the one time that seems logically consistent with ed's given age. His actions are often not super consistent with age. (I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ARGUMENT ON THIS I HAVE HAD IT ABOUT EVERY PROPERTY YOU CAN IMAGINE. YOUR DISSENT IS NOTED FOR THE RECORD. IT'S FINE) But thatnk God at least for this moment!

Hughes responding with a really beautiful amount of cope here. If your argument is that only they can do it what you are saying is, "It's acceptable to use children, and I am fine with it, if they have a specialized skill."

She would never, but if it were me, i would be like, "Would you let Elicia do it?" Because that's the real measure of your beliefs. It's fine to send other people's kids to die, but is it fine to send yours? How much do you believe in the glorious cause?

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

Okay the first thing i have to say is that, "You've gotta be yanking me" is not the appropriate statement for this kind of reveal. I don't speak Japanese so I don't know whose fault this is, but not the best dialogue choice this show has ever made.

That being set to the side: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I should have guessed at something like this, but I really did not. Ed has fucking convinced himself so deeply that he is never going to have to be one of those terrible people who kills people, even if he is a State Alchemist, and has managed to convince himself that he simply would not do any of this, and now THE BLOOD OF OTHERS is literally what is standing between him and his goals. Ed has taken a lot of steps in a lot of terrible directions. Can he go here? Does he finally understand Tucker, in this moment?

The answer is not, he won't go there, and because he's a teen shounen protag we aren't even going to see him seriously wrestle with it which is a little bit of a bummer for me. i don't want him to do it, but I do want him to fight with the impulse. I love shows where you watch a good man walk into hell step by step, all the while convincing himself heaven is just around the corner. I would like a little play in that direction, but I think that's too hard for a show meant for this age range.

So now what? What do you do, Ed, now that you've discovered the thing you want most in the world? That it has a cost you cannot pay? Will you give up? Will you decide that your arm and leg are just fine the way they are? What of your brother? I'm not sure what's going on with him, but I feel like it isn't good. Is it going to get worse and worse? Can you kill people to save him? How many is enough? Where does the line of your love cross the line of your conscience? (It won't. But. I can dream)

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

AHAHAHAH for this they put it to the sad harmonica Roy nearly eating his gun/the horrors of war music ahahaha oh my god. It also plays while I look for my car keys.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

Okay so we're going top kind of go into this because it plays into my very particular view of State Alchemists within the system, and any canon proofs I can get for the way I want to view things are getting DETAILED.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL MEEEEEEEE

So, Ed essentially has an infinite budget to do shit. Whatever he fucking wants. You would think this would upset me because it's more of Ed being a special boy, but it doesn't actually. It plays into my belief that State Alchemists in general are Special Boys to whom the rules do not apply.

State Alchemists are specialized weapons. They are very powerful, they are extremely dangerous, they are alchemists that not only have immense skill, but the proctors saw ways in which their gifts could be weaponized and used to destroy. They exist to provide decisive ends to conflicts.

As such, they are worth more than a random soldier. It's like asking whether one soldier is worth a bomber. So they are allowed to get away with shit. They are given shit.

I started thinking about this when I started thinking about how much it must rankle someone like Hawkeye, who has a great service history and immense training and skill, to be a Lieutenant, when Ed shows up and they're like, "yeah we can use that to kill people" and is made Major instantly*. Because State Alchemists are Special Boys.

So we have Ed not having to wear the uniform. Allowances made for Special Boys. In my own heart, we have Roy basically like, "Oh I can't make the fitness test this year, *cough cough* sorry" but he can level a fucking city block so they're like "Fine. Whatever. Pass" Endless budgets for research. Roy gets to take Hawkeye at every transfer. Whatever you want, baby.

And I LOVE this. Because it brings home how much they are weapons, and how the only thing the military cares about is keeping them in the hangar to be deployed when conflict breaks out. They are separated from being human even in the way they are allowed to break standards that PEOPLE are held to.

NO SPOILERS AT ALL PLEASE I BEG

*Hughes is going to let her complain and not even once mention that she would never make a move that separated her from Roy, and that is not Elric's fault, nor any State Alchemist's fault, because he is just trying to enjoy his lunch and that is going to turn this into a situation where you can't enjoy lunch and besides Hawkeye is at least not long-winded about much of anything.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

AHAHAHAHAHA

"She's the most amazing girl in the world, you should hear her sing Twinkle, Twinkle, next time you're in town she can actually sing you a lullaby if you're having trouble sleeping, I can't imagine anyone not being gently rocked to sleep--"

"We're on the clock here, Lieutenant Colonel."

"We are! Isn't that great. You're getting paid to hear all the things I know you love to hear for free. Anyway--"

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

This brings to mind the conversation I had with my mom friend the other day when we were revealing that she had watched FMA 2003 (as an adult! When she was a teen librarian she was there for anime club and they decided to watch it. Being as she had to be in the room, she saw it. I was so excited ahaha, I couldn't believe my luck.) wherein where were debating the various characters and the unfortunate dearth of women (though we agree hawkeye is amazing) and she says to me, a fool, "If you had to marry a man in FMA though, it'd be Mustang." Me, intelligent, wise, "No, absolutely not, why do straight women want to be unhappy? Maes Hughes."

I do believe, I mean this is played for laughs, and that's great, but I do think hughes has this huge blind spot when it comes to the PRACTICALITY of his suggestion. He's like, "I am insanely happy. Everything feels amazing. Life is so great. You should have this, i want this for you." and in the well-meaning joy of that, he is ignoring everything about Roy that makes him unmarriageble. Even outside of his general lack of desire to be married. I do not think a woman should marry Roy Mustang. I think that's a really bad decision. I think that will not lead to long-term happiness.

But yeah, I do think Hughes ignores every single problem with Roy: an acid-tongued, PTSD-ridden, pathologically ambitious, and emotionally unavailable liar. And all of this is ignoring the fact that you'd have to find a woman who's REAL COOL with Hawkeye.

Because he wants things to be better. It's being played as a joke but I'm not going to take it as one, so there, you can't make me do anything, show. I am going to bask in the one minute these idiots are onscreen and you cannot make me do otherwise.

Roy, of course, is like, "This is stupid and you are stupid, how the fuck are you getting promoted in Investigations?" because Hughes really OUGHT to know better, and he's a smart guy but he just....can't accept this.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

After everything Marcoh told him, after everything he's witnessed, he still is like, "And he just ABANDONED his fucking research!" Say nothing of the fact that Marcoh is, to the best of Ed's knowledge, imprisoned by the state. That's not the problem. The problem is that Marcoh wouldn't help him.

He is so willfully blind to LEARNING A GODDAMN THING. In ep 13, Roy was like, "I actually did not have a great time in Ishbal, confidentially." In 15, Marcoh was like, "Let me lay it out. My research led to incalculable death and inhuman suffering. The military destroyed countless lives and psyches. Colonel Mustang is only alive because I stopped him from eating his gun because no matter how far you are willing to go, they will take you further out until you drown. The only way to win is not to play." and Ed is over here like, "WHY WON'T MARCOH HELP ME?? I SIMPLY WOULD NOT DO THAT." ahahah, I am dying. Idiot. Love this.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME

[docholligay]

Ed. One of Hughes' best friends is a manipulative liar by like, fucking trade. Hughes has known Roy for like one million years. You are amateur hour compared to that.

All jokes aside, I do love this, though. Not only because Hughes is like, 'I let this happen, Ed, sorry, I've met a version of you before." but also! Ed being a version of Roy again! I will maintain until i cease to draw breath in this world that part of, a LOT of, the reason they cannot fucking get along is that they see something of themselves in the other and it makes them want to fight like a betta fish. Ed is like, "Oh did I help someone else out? Cool, cool, yeah I care a lot. Definitely was not just all about me and my desire to put the pieces into place for my goals." Ed is essentially one-track minded which makes him INCREDIBLY self-centered. LIKE SOMEONE ELSE WE KNOW.

I DON'T want to see a young Roy because I don't trust anime literally ever. But on the other hand, I wonder, and will continually enthusiastically imagine in my own head because as observed I am fucked completely, what Roy was like BEFORE. Before he got broken. What did that look like, and how much was it like Ed? I don't know but I will think about it at 3 am.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ANYTHING THAT COULD EVEN REMOTELY LEAD TO ME REALIZING SOMETHING OR KNOWING SOMETHING NEW. Do not confirm, deny, draw attention to something I missed EVEN IF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT, contextualize in a cultural or historical way, anything. I hate that I have to be so specific but I am trying to experience this show totally clean. IF YOU SPOIL ME I WILL BLOCK YOU.

QUICK LINK TO THE SPOILER-FILLED FUNTIMES DISCORD HERE. THEY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND YELL ABOUT ME